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Sabina Park, scene of the abandoned Test against England 14 months ago, will be under intense scrutiny when it returns to the international stage for the second West Indies-Australia game here tomorrow.

Charlie Joseph, groundsman for more than 30 years at the Kingston ground, believes it will be on its best behaviour. ``There will be some turn and bounce but nothing menacing,'' he said.

Joseph was not in charge in January last year when the West Indies board were responsible for Test strips but control has now been handed back to him and, like many Jamaicans, he believes England's batsmen exaggerated the dangers to life and limb in the 66 minutes before the game was called off.

``Sure, the bounce was unpredictable but we played several games afterwards on the same wicket and no one got hurt,'' he said.

But at the insistence of the International Cricket Council, the square was dug up to a depth of about two inches. Since then, there have been five first-class games and a number of minor matches.

There are still some cracks but Joseph's plan is to limit their spread by careful watering and a lot of rolling. ``It's a more even wicket than any I can remember since 1984,'' he said.

At surface level the pitch still resembles Kingston wickets of old: not a blade of grass to be seen above a brown surface shining like a bald man's pate.

On a turning wicket the West Indies are almost certain to call up local off-spinner Nehemiah Perry for his Test debut. But it is ironic that a pitch once famed for helping hostile pace bowlers may now play into the hands of Australia's leg-break specialists, Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill.

Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose will once again be expected to carry the burden of the home attack, though there are still some doubts about Ambrose's knee troubles.

Walsh, who has not played on his home ground since the infamous England game, yesterday became a virtual freeman of Kingston when he received the keys to his home city at a formal presentation in recognition of reaching the 400-wicket mark in Tests.

No captain has yet been named in the West Indies' provisional list of 19 players for the World Cup. Brian Lara is still on probation for the first two Australia Tests and his leadership abilities in these games may go some way to deciding whether he will be in charge in England.

Aravinda de Silva, the specialist batsman, and fast bowler Chaminda Vaas have reinforced Sri Lanka ahead of today's start to the Test against Pakistan in Dhaka to decide the Asian champions.

De Silva takes over the captaincy from the injured Arjuna Ranatunga. Left-armer Vaas was rested for the previous encounter with Pakistan, which ended in a rain-hit draw on Monday.

West Indies provisional World Cup squad:

B C Lara, C L Hooper, K L T Arthurton, R D Jacobs, R N Lewis, J C Adams, C A Walsh, S Ragoonath, S C Williams, +J R Murray, M Dillon, C E L Ambrose, S Chanderpaul, R D King, N C McGarrell, D R E Joseph, H R Bryan, C B Lambert, P V Simmons.